Sporting life

WHEN Brett Lee asked umpire Aleem
Dar at the SCG on Monday: "Why isn't it out?" he found
himself reported by the umpires and match referee for dissent.

Lee seemed incredulous that Dar would not provide any
explanation for his decline of an lbw appeal against Jacques
Kallis, and it seems harsh on the surface. But the issue runs
deeper, and it raises the question as to whether umpires need to
explain themselves at all.

A few old-time umpires are annoyed that the current-day men in
white coats are increasingly being required by the players to
explain not-out decisions. A lot of the elite panel umpires now
will provide the answer, either verbally or by gesticulation (a
little wave of the arm to indicate "missing leg stump", for
example). But it didn't happen like that before.

Robin Bailhache, a Melburnian who umpired 27
Test matches in the 1970s and 1980s, is one who applauded Dar's
decision to keep his reasons to himself. "I say: 'Good on him'.
That umpire deserves a pat on the back. It's a bad precedent, and
the sooner it's stopped, the better," said Bailhache, who was one
of the best  but hardest  umpires in the world.

In Bailhache's time, the umpire's decision was final, quite
simply. "You don't try to explain because if they think you're an
idiot then that's just going prove to them that you are," he said.
"You can't win in that situation."

Appealing: an appeal

ROBIN Bailhache sees a lot of things about modern cricket that
annoy him, though he's umpiring only the odd college game these
days.

To begin with, there's the old benefit-of-the-doubt situation.
"I think the benefit of the doubt is swinging around to the
bowler," he says. "I probably sound like an old-timer, but a lot of
decisions that are given out now wouldn't be given 20 years ago. As
good as the bowlers are, their figures wouldn't be anything like as
good. An umpire basically has three decisions to make if there's an
appeal. One is 'yes, it's out'. Two is 'I don't know for certain'.
Three is 'I wouldn't have a clue'. So two out of three have to be
not out."

A quick glance at umpire Billy Bowden's speculative lbw
decision against Ashwell Prince at the SCG yesterday would
have confirmed Bailhache's thinking in this area. Bailhache also
believes the level of appealing is "way over the top", and that it
filters down the grades. "The guys at the top should be able to
handle it. The one I feel sorry for is the umpire down at the park
putting up with all this hoo-ha."

Ten out of the doghouse

CHANNEL 10 is to be allowed back into Australian cricket grounds
from today after its dispute with Cricket Australia was resolved
yesterday. The network had the accreditation of its staff suspended
by CA last week after it showed footage of a players' race debate
between opposing captains Ricky Ponting and Graeme
Smith, contravening its agreement not to show any footage from
inside a ground. Channel Nine, the television rights holder for
cricket, is the only station allowed to do so. Ten has apologised
for the breach and Cricket Australia has relented on its earlier
stance. Spokesman Peter Young said the issue was about
Nine's rights; not about the fact that Ponting and Smith were
engaged in debate. "They could have filmed two seagulls on the
field and I still would have been upset," said Young.

Stone, motherless but happy

THE Sydney to Hobart yacht race is officially over, after the
tiny Sydney-based boat Gillawa crossed the line just before
midnight on Monday in last place. Its time was seven days 10 hours
23 minutes 57 seconds  a personal-best, but roughly six days
behind the winner, the supermaxi Wild Oats XI.

Of course, even the last of the stragglers had all departed
Constitution Dock by the time they arrived, but according to owner
David Kent (pictured front right), it's not about
winning but competing.

"We haven't got any chance on handicap, whatever division they
put us on," said Kent, who mortgaged his home to buy the 9.46-metre
boat. "We're so small that it's a long, hard drag. But we've opened
up opportunities for people who've never done the race before and I
take the view, 'Let's get out and do it'!"

Kent told the other five people on the boat he would shout the
bar if Gillawa arrived in Hobart in time for New Year's Eve; alas,
the crew spent the last hours of 2005 sipping champagne on board
and had their own fancy-dress party.

"We generate our own fun," said Kent. "We just sang Six
Months In a Leaky Boat to ourselves."

Television bonanza

IF YOU think the $780 million the AFL is about to raise for its
television rights over five years is big moolah, take a look at the
NFL in America, which is going into its play-off season.

The NFL recently has split its rights, much as the AFL did last
time, with the NBC network picking up rights for Sunday nights
alone at $800 million a year. Monday night football is switching
from ABC to the ESPN at twice that, despite controversy over the
fact a pay-television network is taking up the rights.

The total package for NFL is said to be worth about $5 billion a
year, which makes it 30 times more lucrative than what messrs
Demetriou and company are on the verge of signing up for. It's not
just football, either. The PGA Tour of the United States, rolling
in cash since the emergence of a ratings-puller in Tiger
Woods, is in the last year of a four-year deal worth $288
million a year, and is soon to renegotiate.

Now we know that our population is much smaller, but boy, that
puts a different perspective on things.

A lucrative scrap

A 31-YEAR-OLD interior decorator who came across a rubbish bag
containing the screwed-up names of the 32 teams who were drawn out
and placed in groups for football's World Cup has kicked a
lucrative metaphorical goal. Matthias Blume found the scraps
of paper from last month's draw while cleaning up after the World
Cup ballot at Leipzig last month, and auctioned the name "Germany"
on the internet. Someone paid the equivalent of $18,000 for that,
and the names "Australia" and "England" are up for grabs now, two
teams going at a time. "It's super," Blume said. "I'm going to go
out and buy a new skateboard now. My last one got stolen in the
summer." FIFA, world soccer's ruling body, was sufficiently annoyed
that it sent a warning to Blume's lawyers, who say that he is the
legal owner of the papers and thus can do whatever he likes with
them.

Who said that?

"What annoys me is the open-mouthed amazement and the hands in the
air when a decision goes against them. They have to take the good
with the bad but some of them aren't prepared to do that."